Anders Klostergaard Petersen

Jesper Sørensen

In Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic ten leading scholars of religion provide up-to-date investigations into these classic domains from historical, anthropological, cognitive, philosophical and theoretical perspectives.

Manipulating the Divine

Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic

Jeppe Sinding Jensen

Luther H. Martin

Gilhus Ingvild Sælid

The chapters explore the possible development of a new scholarly synthesis for the study of religion, founded on the triadic space constituted by evolution, cognition, cultural and ecological environment. Chapters focus on either evolution, cognition, and/or the history of religion.

Festschrift in Honour of Armin W. Geertz

Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis

Jonathan H. Turner

Alexandra Maryanski

Armin W. Geertz

Written by leading theorists and empirical researchers, this book presents new ways of addressing the old question: Why did religion first emerge and then continue to evolve in all human societies? The authors of the book—each with a different background across the social sciences and humanities—assimilate conceptual leads and empirical findings from anthropology, evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, neurology, primate behavioral studies, explanations of human interaction and group dynamics, and a wide range of religious scholarship to construct a deeper and more powerful explanation of the origins and subsequent evolutionary development of religions than can currently be found in what is now vast literature. While explaining religion has been a central question in many disciplines for a long time, this book draws upon a much wider array of literature to develop a robust and cross-disciplinary analysis of religion. The book remains true to its subtitle by emphasizing an array of both biological and sociocultural forms of selection dynamics that are fundamental to explaining religion as a universal institution in human societies. In addition to Darwinian selection, which can explain the biology and neurology of religion, the book outlines a set of four additional types of sociocultural natural selection that can fill out the explanation of why religion first emerged as an institutional system in human societies, and why it has continued to evolve over the last 300,000 years of societal evolution. These sociocultural forms of natural selection are labeled by the names of the early sociologists who first emphasized them, and they can be seen as a necessary supplement to the type of natural selection theorized by Charles Darwin. Explanations of religion that remain in the shadow cast by Darwin’s great insights will, it is argued, remain narrow and incomplete when explaining a robust sociocultural phenomenon like religion.

By Means of Natural Selection

The Emergence and Evolution of Religion

George H. van Kooten

This first volume of the new Brill series “Ancient Philosophy & Religion” offers analyses of Platonic philosophy and piety, the emergence of a common religio-philosophical discourse in Antiquity, the place of Jesus among ancient philosophers, and responses of pagan philosophers to Christianity from the second century to Late Antiquity.

From Plato, through Jesus, to Late Antiquity

Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World

Torleif Elgvin

Cecilia Wassen

Hanne von Weissenberg

Mikael Winninge

This book originates from a series of conferences held by the Nordic Qumran Network, established 2003. The volume includes some of the best contributions presented at the four symposia held in Helsinki 2003, Oslo 2004, Jerusalem 2005, and Copenhagen 2006.

Proceedings of the Nordic Qumran Network 2003-2006

Northern Lights on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Anders Klostergaard Petersen

Books

Your next favorite book is out there